Welcome to Kelsey Can!

Saturday, December 20, 2014

When you were just one year old, Santa wrote you a letter. I bet you don't remember. ;)

Back when Santa wrote that letter, Santa really had no idea where you would go.

Santa knew what your mommy had been told and he also knew how very much your mommy loved you. He saw the way that you worked so hard in all you did and the way you never gave up.

Kelsey, Santa is so very proud of you.

You try hard every day to the point of exhaustion. Yet you are always ready to stay up past your bedtime if the opportunity allows.

Santa sees you make friends with so many different people. He sees the way you have the ability to bring out the best in people and to show people's hearts by the way they choose to communicate with you.

Santa sees your patience. He sees the way you persist to get your communication across even when others around you aren't getting it. He sees the way you treat people kindly even when they fail to "see" the real you and what is really going on inside of you. Your patience is a gift that he is so very glad that God gave you and hopes you will continue to grow it.

I loved the way that you persisted in your message with your mommy so she knew what to tell me that you wanted for Christmas. You would hear nothing of baby dolls or barbie dolls or any other present. You knew just what you wanted and even which one of those that you wanted. You even had your brother telling Santa what you want when I saw you.

Speaking of your brother, what a fantastic gift from God he is to you. He loves you so very much and I don't know if you know it, but when he doesn't get his "kiss and hug" to you before your bus leaves, he cries and says "But I want to give she a kiss and hug." and your mommy has to tell him that you will be back from school and he can give you one then. You are so good for each other.

Santa doesn't know how soon those around you will figure out how to give you your full voice. I have watched your patience and persistence. In the end, Santa hope that technology (and people) will catch up to your thoughts and you can put them out there for everyone. But those who love you know and I know that you have a message worth sharing.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Kelsey is growing up to be the amazing little girl that I have always known she was.

She is nearing the end of kindergarten! I need to put a brick on her head to stop her from growing. Her helpers tell me that she has grown several inches since they started playing with her.

We are still actively working towards getting her a "voice." In the meantime, we are using partner assisted auditory scanning for conversation and academics at home.

Apparently Kelsey and I had been doing this for a long time and didn't even know it. Now, we have an awesome resource that is helping us and we are moving forward towards documenting that sweet, smart little girl inside.

Here she is doing some math.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu8VwAMdlLU

I have always said that Kelsey Can. And she can. Just a little differently than the rest of us.

For New Parents

About Me

The girl's name Kelsey \k(e)-lsey, kel-sey\, also used as boy's name Kelsey, is pronounced KEL-see. It is of Old English origin, and its meaning is "victorious ship".
We chose this name because we believed she was sailing through life's challenges (losing her identical twin sister).
We have since truly learned that this little girl fits her name.

Ready to Hunt Easter Eggs

"You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile."- Brian Tracy

"Accept the gift as if it were one you had chosen." -Jane Hirshfield

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MY CHILD

Remember that he is, first of all, my child.

Let me see him smiling in his sleep and let me think about how handsome he isand not about how delayed that smile was in coming.

Help me not lose sight of my son in the shadow of his limitationsI know that you care for my child and that you work hard with him.

I need your expertise to help him become all that he is capable of being.

You need my help in understanding who he really isand in following through at home with things that are important.

Remember, though, that you send him home at night and have weekends off and paid vacations.

Let me have the luxury of having a vacation, sometimes physically,sometimes just emotionally, for a day, a week, a month, without your judging me.

I will be there for him when you are long gone.

I love my child with an intensity that you can only imagine.

If on a given day I am tired or cross with him, listen to me,lighten my burden, but do not judge me.

Celebrate with me, rejoice in who he is and who he will becomebut forgive me if from time to time I shed a tear for who he might have been.

- Author Unknown

Followers

Kelsey at 10 months

Innocent Eyes--Our Real Life Doll

The Mountain Author: Jim StovallFrom: You Don't Have to Be Blind to SeePublisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers

There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains.

The lowlanders didn't know how to climb the mountain. They didn't know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn't know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain.

Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home.

The men tried first one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only several hundred feet.

Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below.

As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby's mother walking toward them. They realized that she was coming down the mountain that they hadn't figured out how to climb.

And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back. How could that be?

One man greeted her and said, "We couldn't climb this mountain. How did you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn't do it?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said, "It wasn't your baby."

Kaitlyn and Kelsey

9 weeks, 5 days in utero

Psalm 139 (New International Version)

1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?

24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Praying Hands

2 days old

*All original images, text, and content copyrighted by KBD, LLC.

"but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."-Isaiah 40:31 (New International Version)

"To accomplish great things,we must not only act, but also dream;not only plan, but also believe.”- Anatole France

“Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.”-Amelia Earhart"If Children have the ability to ignore odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other chance is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell".-Lance Armstrong

"Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable."- Wendy Wasserstein

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”- Helen Keller

"With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose."- Wayne Dyer

"Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it."-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Shake It Off And Step Up

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule 'braying' - or - whatever mules do when they fall into wells. After carefully assessing the situation, the farmer sympathized with the mule, but decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together and told them what had happened...and enlisted them to help haul dirt to bury the old mule in the well and put him out of his misery.

Initially, the old mule was hysterical! But as the farmer and his neighbors continued shoveling and the dirt hit his back...a thought struck him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back...HE SHOULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP! This he did, blow after blow.

"Shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up...shake it off and step up!" he repeated to encourage himself. No matter how painful the blows, or distressing the situation seemed the old mule fought "panic" and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!

You're right! It wasn't long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, STEPPED TRIUMPHANTLY OVER THE WALL OF THAT WELL! What seemed like it would bury him, actually blessed him...all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

THAT'S LIFE! If we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity...THE ADVERSITIES THAT COME ALONG TO BURY US USUALLY HAVE WITHIN THEM THE POTENTIAL TO BENEFIT AND BLESS US! Remember that FORGIVENESS--FAITH--PRAYER-- PRAISE and HOPE...all are excellent ways to "SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP" out of the wells in which we find ourselves!- Author Unknown